If you do the full diploma programme (DP) of the IB, CAS (aka Creativity, Activity, Service) is a mandatory part the IB requires from you over the course of your two years that you prepare for your IAs and exams. Here are some tips based on my experience on how to approach CAS and make it a less painful extra hassle you have to deal with later on.

1. Make CAS The Excuse To Do What You Enjoy

Do you like taking photographs? Regularly go on a photographing journey around your area and maybe post them on social media. Do you already play in a football team? Just make that already count as a CAS activity. The whole “idea” of CAS is to make sure that you keep a balanced lifestyle amid your studies for your subjects and exams, albeit being frankly more of a hassle than a benefit. But since it that is it’s original purpose, use it to its uttermost potential!

2. Balance and Consistency is Key To Success

Ideally, you’d probably want something that counts as creativity, something that counts as activity, and something that counts as service. They do not have to all be done every single week, but are ideally all long-term activities you can continuously do for your two years of the DP. For example, I was in a yoga group to count as activity, did singing which some performances from time to time as creativity, and helped the library label their ancient sheet music lying in equally ancient boxes to count as service. Here is what my timeline looked like:

I generally had an activity for “creativity”, an activity for “activity”, and an activity for “service”. If you can’t find a long-term activity to do, you can either do multiple ones with little to no breaks in between them, or make a long term one of your own, like I did with my yoga activity, by outsourcing to your local community for a group you could join.

3. Finish Your CAS Project Early On

I started my CAS project in the first month of my DP years and finished it in 2 months before my first mock exams. That way, I didn’t have to deal with it later on. I might have also been a weird case where I had a friend, who already was a DP graduate, suggest me to work with her on an activity that I could count as a CAS project in the break before I started my DP years. So if you have time before you begin your DP and don’t know what to do, I suggest you start with brainstorming a CAS project now.

4. If Your School Has a Handbook, Use It.

Based on what I’ve read on reddit about many people’s experiences with it, the CAS requirements seem to be strangely different depending on the school. I don’t know why. Luckily, our CAS coordinator made us some handbooks and presentations that we could refer to. If you have a decently responsible CAS coordinator, ask them to see if they have any resources available for you to use as a guideline to understand what your coordinator wants from you, in order for them to tell the IB that “yes, this student (aka you reading this) has completed the CAS requirements”. If your coordinator sucks or you haven’t officially started the DP yet, take a look at this guide, it gives you an introduction to CAS and also has tons of useful advice you can rely on: Lanterna CAS Guide

Conclusion

Hope this gives you some points to know about CAS and be careful about! If you have any other tips, write them down below in the comments section below, I’m sure others will appreciate it!